Sunday, 5 February 2017

The Longest Running Peace Camp In The World.

A couple of days old, but well worth publicising as much as possible. For those who don't know, the Faslane Peace camp, on the shore of Gare Loch, outside the gates of the Faslane nuclear submarine base is the longest running peace camp in the world, 35 years on site protesting, organising and keeping alive the anti-nuclear battle in Scotland. More steam to your elbow.

On 2nd of February, starting
06.30 AM, five anti-nuclear activists blocked the pleasantly busy
morning traffic at the south gate of Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde
(yes, they’re still having this monarchy thing going on) in Faslane,
Scotland. South Gate is one of the two main entrances to the base and
open under a certain schedule: it doesn’t take all that much to clog up
their routines. Base staff did its best to direct the traffic to the
North Gate, but soon enough the tailback stretched from the North Gate
to a distance of over two miles: we climbed on our caravan roofs and
tried to cycle down the line to see the end of the traffic jam, but no
chance. “I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit!
It’s a cliché, but true! The struggle against nuke weapons should be as
out of fashion as other 80’s monstrosities, but now with the likes of
President Trump or Prime Minister Theresa May it seems we’re headed
towards a new arms race”, says activist Molly Garfield. “May has stated
‘I think we should defend our country, I think we should play our role
in NATO with an independent nuclear deterrent’, so there you go.
Nationalism, militarism, WMD’s. Down with all that, I say.” The
lock-on crew was accompanied by three legal supporters and a
photographer. The Ministry of Defence police arrived to the scene in
some 20 minutes. Around here, the legal supporters are supposed to have
the right to snap photos, feed bananas to protestor’s and observe that
the cops at least try to behave. This time MoD’s were having a rotten
day. PC 470 (they just like to be identified, don’t they?) tried to
bully the photographer off by threatening to “smash that camera if you
don’t stop taking photos”, while other simply pushed two observers some
20 metres away, well behind a barrier of uniforms. Not that we
would’ve minded much. We were busy being amused by their continuous
mishaps. At 07:00 AM, the hobby level cutting team from the base
arrived, asking for the suitable camera equipment: only to find out
their colleagues couldn’t find any. Next thing you knew was that they’ve
managed to get a bolt cutter stuck on somebody’s lock-on, unable to
continue. Thus, the traffic jam kept building up and road was nowhere
close to get cleared before they managed to bring in the actual cutting
team. On their arrival, the photographer was also tossed from the scene
and view to locked-on activists blocked with police vehicles. By
09.20 AM all five activists were arrested and transported to the
nearest cop shop. The South Gate was closed for approximately two and a
half hours. The action was conducted by hippies from the nearby Faslane
Peace Camp: thanks for support, one struggle! “On times when
taking a stand or expressing one’s opinions gets you ridiculed, labelled
as a terrorist or lectured how protesting of any sort is futile, do the
bloody opposite. Faslane Peace Camp is rolling on to its 35th year, but
seemingly the world leaders and arm dealers are not allowing it to
retire any time soon. You could imagine that a nuke sub base would a
tricky or dangerous location, but this seems more like a sitting duck
for anyone up for a little direct action”, Roxy Newton, another
activist, emphasises. The action is the second protest to take
place within a short time. Both sparked by the revelation of the Royal
Navy misfiring of a Trident II D5 ballistic missile from the HMS
Vengeance last June and questions surrounding the cover-up of the test
results and general madness of nuke weapons. Activists were also keen to
express their solidarity with the Put Down the Sword crew who’ve ably
demonstrated that for all the hyperbole espoused by polemic,
self-professed Christians, the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” ethos remains the
central tenet. The Faslane Peace Camp is
a permanent protest camp dedicated to campaigning and protesting
against nuclear weapons and related madness since 1982. The camp,
located next to the HMNB Clyde, is celebrating its 35th Anniversary this
year, and it’s welcoming all interested individuals to participate the
fun and games available. No racism, no homophobia, no sexism: just
direct action.

2 comments:

"Of course, I am a poet, not a fool. I do not think a poem will defeat a bullet; But it can affect the thinking of the man whose finger is on the trigger. I have read my work at the gates of Faslane, home to the British fleet of submarine nuclear weapons. There, among crowds, there are soldiers and policemen who stop and listen. Where could my words end up in their heads? When your loved ones approach, afraid of the darkness? I have toured the atomic weapons testing sites of the US deserts, leaving seeds and syllables - seeds of peace, and again, where those weapons were used in Japan. It is not because I am brave (I am not), but that I am human and like everyone I have met, I deplore war and do whatever is in my power, as a person of peace, as a poet, to speak against her and make people gather, to act in reconciliation".